


The Tigress

by Ruusverd



Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [30]
Category: Echoes of the Fall - Adrian Tchaikovsky, Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26285311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruusverd/pseuds/Ruusverd
Summary: Geralt and the Wolves come home to find there have been some changes while they were gone.
Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863010
Comments: 5
Kudos: 7





	The Tigress

**Author's Note:**

> My word processor gave up the ghost yesterday, but it seems to have come back to life (for now) so here's the next installment.
> 
> I know a lot of people don't like OCs, but bear with me. I swear she's here for plot reasons, she isn't going to take over the story or be anyone's love interest.

Geralt was relieved when they were finally able to leave the Many Mouths and head for home. They’d had to stay overnight for the grand feast that came the day after the Testing or risk offending their hosts, and the chief had spent the whole meal making subtle and then not-so-subtle suggestions that his grandson, who had chosen the hearth over the hunt, would make an excellent mate for Ciri.

Geralt knew the chief was old, and that he had no hunters among his children. He would be eager to tie a man of Geralt’s reputation to his family in such a way. The whole of the great warband of Wolves that had turned back the southerners had seen the Champion Geralt had Stepped to, and the stories had only grown in the months since. Any hunter who hoped to become chief of the Many Mouths by challenging an old man who couldn’t hope to defeat them would think twice if they knew they would be instantly challenged in turn by White Wolf, killer of priests and Champion of the Wolf.

Geralt didn’t care to explain that the Champion was gone, and had started running low on both patience and ways to turn down the chief’s offers without insulting either the man himself or the grandson’s many apparent virtues as a potential hearth-husband. He was glad Eskel had seen his patience fraying and made up a hasty and barely-polite excuse for them to leave before Geralt reached the end of his tolerance. If he hadn't Geralt might have told the chief he had no intention of choosing Ciri’s mate for her, and he would rather go south and beg a soul of the spotted Plains Dog like the exiles of old than let himself be tied to the old man’s hearth to do his fighting for him.

Ciri, who Geralt hoped remained oblivious to her elder’s conversations, was still in very high spirits on the return trip. She frequently reminded them that now that she’d passed the Testing there was no excuse for her to be left out of their hunts anymore. Geralt was almost as happy as Ciri that he wouldn’t have to keep refusing her. He wondered how long it would take for the novelty to wear off and turn hunting into a necessary task like any other. More dangerous than most chores, perhaps, and still mentally and physically challenging, but still something that just had to be done if they wanted everyone to stay fed. The tribe kept a small flock of chickens, but they simply didn't have enough time or enough hands to keep sheep or cattle for meat.

When they were close enough to see the smoke of the cooking fires, the Wolves announced their arrival by howling and then raced each other to the village. They all slid to a confused stop when the first person they saw was a Tigress sunning herself by the village’s edge. The sight was so unexpected that for a moment they simply froze, unable to process what they were seeing. In the next breath the Wolves were bristling, shouldering Ciri to the back and snarling at their longtime enemy.

 _Not again,_ Geralt thought with sickening horror, _D_ _on't let me have come home to find everyone dead again._ He’d never fought a Tiger, but he knew they were ferocious and highly skilled warriors. The only reason the Wolves had ultimately won the wars was that the Tigers fought as incredibly well-trained individuals, they could not combine their strength into a pack as the Wolves did.  


The Tigress stared at them, then Stepped back to a tall woman of middle years, her cheeks lined with scars deliberately made in imitation of a tiger’s stripes, wearing armor of joined squares of bronze. She carried both a knife and a javelin, but didn’t raise either against the Wolves. “I am not your enemy,” she said, her expression hard but unafraid.

The Wolves paused, confused. The Wolves and the Tigers had fought each other for possession of the Crown of the World for over three generations, and the war had not officially ended until a few years before Ciri had been born. Geralt had never fought the Tiger, but Eskel and Lambert had. Lambert likely still engaged in the occasional skirmish, since the Swift Backs’ territory bordered the lands the Tiger still held. A Tiger who wasn’t an enemy was a concept they had no framework for.

The rest of the tribe started to gather, and Geralt sagged in relief to see them unharmed. The only alarm on their faces seemed to be directed at the Wolves themselves, not the Tigress.

“Stop!” Lem shouted at them. “She isn’t here to fight, she’s here to join us.” She looked at the Wolves sternly, “The rest of us already decided she can stay so it's too late for any of you to make a fuss about it.”

The Wolves Stepped back reluctantly. Geralt glared at Eskel. _See what happens when you_ _insist on_ _drag_ _ging_ _me off for silly Wolf rituals?_ he asked silently. _They start adopting Tigers_ _the moment my back is turned_ _._

Eskel grimaced at him and turned to the Tigress. "The Shining Halls are many miles away to the east, and most of the land between here and there lies in the Wolf’s Shadow. How did you manage to reach us without being caught and killed on the way?”

"Not for nothing are the Tigers called the Fire Shadow People," the woman said, a touch of pride entering her voice. “We can pass unseen wherever we wish.”

An exaggeration, Geralt knew, but not far from the truth. A Tiger’s eyes were better than a Wolf’s in the dark, and their stripes made them difficult to see. A wolf’s nose was keener though, and no hunter worth the name would have had any trouble finding a tiger’s scent where no tiger should be. He thought she’d probably bent her path far north into the Cave Dwellers’ land most of the way. The Bears could hardly stand each other’s company, let alone anyone else’s. While they weren’t friendly as a rule towards either Wolf or Tiger, they were also lazy and usually couldn’t be bothered to chase off any travelers that didn’t look inclined to stay.

"Not for nothing are the Tigers called the Shadow _Eaters,"_ Lambert countered coldly. The stories of what the Tigers did with captured enemies were many and horrifying, and generations of Wolves had been raised on such stories. Living with the Swift Backs, Lambert had likely heard more than most.

The Tigress tipped her head in acknowledgment. "My people have fed many Wolf souls to the Tiger, this is true. And yet, how many Tigers have burned in the Wolf's Jaws? How many of our mute sisters did the Wolves hunt down and slaughter, to deprive our souls of shapes to be reborn into?"

“After so many wrongs on both sides, why would you _want_ to join us?” Geralt demanded, convinced it must be a trick.

“All the Crown of the World has heard of this place by now. They say it is not a place of Wolves only, or of any one totem. It is a place where those who have no where else to go take refuge, where even the worst of enemies live shoulder to shoulder in peace.”

Geralt opened his mouth to argue, but couldn’t. The enmity between Lion and Hyena was older even than that between Wolf and Tiger. Lem’s tribe had been killed by the same people Ciri had been born to. Cahir was once a soldier of the Kasra, who had been Geralt’s enemy. Regis’ people were the terror of all who lived on the Plains. The rest of them might have no long-standing hereditary feuds with any of the others, but they all certainly qualified as those with no where else to go. He wondered which of the Wolf warriors present at the battle against the Kasra had spread stories about the strange motley tribe living in the Elder Sea villageso widely that they’d managed to reach the Shining Halls. He owed whoever it was a thrashing.

“Why did the Shining Halls cast you out?” Geralt asked instead. He couldn’t very well insist at this point that the woman wasn’t welcome just because the Tiger happened to be _his_ hereditary enemy, but he didn’t want a kinslayer or any such person staying here.

“They did not. It was my choice to leave, but it is a choice I cannot take back. Beyond that my reasons are my own.”

The Wolves and the Tigress stood in a tense stalemate for a moment, before Ciri leaned out from behind Geralt and asked “Will you teach me how to fight like a Tigeress? I've heard all kinds of stories, they say you move like dancers when you fight, but I've never met anyone who could show me before!”

The Tigress looked horrified at the thought of teaching her people’s sacred dance to a Wolf girl, but Geralt raised a challenging eyebrow at her, daring her to say she wouldn’t because the Wolf was her enemy. If he was going to let a Tigress live in what had once been a Wolf village, he wasn't going to be the only one to compromise. The Tigress glared at him but capitulated. “It’s very late for you to start learning and I doubt it will be much use with your shape, but I will teach you what I can.”

Ciri cheered and Geralt resigned himself to having a Tiger in their tribe. _On the bright side,_ he thought wryly, _after this I doubt the chief of the Many Mouths will still want Ciri to marry his grandson._

**Author's Note:**

> Me: It's so hard managing all these characters, I always feel like I'm forgetting about someone.  
> Also me: How about I add more characters??


End file.
